Dean

On the dawn rose my hopes. Soaring high and blossoming in every color imaginable. I drove with a smile, I was nervous yes - terrified, but for some reason, it didn't really matter to me. I was close to her. So incredibly close that I could almost see her, and it was thrilling to know that she would be fine soon. She would be home soon, with her stupid friends and their dumb trends.

Chris was snoring beside me, and Jenna was dozing in the backseat. It was nice having them asleep, I could just listen to my thoughts and the silence and not their endless, pointless bickering. I sat still, paying attention to only my hands gripping tight to wheel and the slight drone of the engine as we flew down the roads.

I was so caught up in my own mind, that I didn't notice Chris was awake until he was talking to me.

"How much further do you think she is from us right now?" He whispered into the dark, making me jump and quite nearly swerve us into a bush. I took a deep breath and glared at him, letting my eyes flicker back and forth between him and the crumbled-down road.

"Chris! Warn me next time! You almost gave me a heart attack!" I hissed as loud as possible without rousing Jemma. Chris just smiled, though not much, his lips pulled up into a tiny little smirk.

"Yeah, sorry. I'll be louder next time." I rolled my eyes and turned a small corner, leaving him leaning against the door of the car.

We sat in silence for a little while, discomfort slipping into just silence, when he opened his big, fat mouth all over again. "Dean, you never answered my question."

I didn't jump this time, in fact it didn't scare me at all. His voice's gentle fade from silence to speech wasn't at all scary. I shook my head at him. "I don't really know. I feel like she's really close, but I could be totally wrong."

He nodded and wrapped his arms around his calves, forming himself into a little ball.

"It's crazy how far we've come." He said, "Do you think you'll ever be the same again?"

I thought for a second and then shook my head. "No. I probably will never take my eyes off of Erin ever again. Little brat's been scaring me enough to make me crazy for the past few weeks. I will never trust suburbans ever again."

Chris laughed quietly, sounding almost like a little rabbit sniffing something in hopes of eating it. I felt a smile breaking out on my face at his little laugh. Maybe happiness really was contagious.

"Look." said Chris, pointing out a black smudge on the horizon. " The birds are migrating already. Can you believe it's almost winter? It doesn't feel like it. It's just barely October"

I nodded slightly. "Yeah. Just barely October. It's so crazy. Almost Erin's birthday too."

Chris laughed, though it sounded quite bitter. "All you ever think about is your sister." He said, "You know, someday you're going to move out and have a family - and you can't worry about her like this then."

I shuddered. I thought of this many times, yes. But taking care of Erin was something I had been doing for years. It never seemed like such a big deal, until people started to freak over it all of the sudden. Really, Erin was just my baby sister, I could remember her as baby and I had watched her grow to who she became. We protected each other - with the help of our parents of course. It was a little scary, knowing that so soon I would be an adult, and I would move out and barely see her anymore.

"Yes. I know," I grunted, dismissing the worry in my heart completely. "It's not like I'm obsessed with her or something."

Chris sighed and glanced out the window, muttering, "Yeah, it sure seems like it."

I sighed and stopped at a stop sign. "Yeah, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." I looked over a Chris, who was blushing furiously.

I laughed at him and pushed on the gas again, sending us down the road at a speed barely over the speed limit. Chris sat in silence, watching the road as it went by, just as I did.

"What is wrong with you two? I was trying to sleep!" Cried Jemma, right in my ear too.

I jumped and yanked on the wheel, somehow managing, once again, to not flip the car. I saw. Out of the corner of my eye, that Chris reacted just as badly as I, jumping so high he almost hit his head on the roof of the car, which was a big thing for someone of his height.

I stared at Jemma in the rearview mirror. She looked like a raccoon, her makeup all smeared in circles and running in streaks down her face. Her lovely hair stuck up in gigantic balls of fuzz and fluff. I stared at her, a little shocked that it was actually her.

\"Whoa, Jemma. Calm down. We were literally sitting in silence when you came to, so don't just yell as us for being loud." Said Chris, already starting an argument, some things never change.

Jemma stared at her. "Oh whatever! It sounded like you were stomping elephants!" She hissed.

I rolled my eyes, listening to them as they argued over nothing.

It was while they were arguing that my engine gave out, giving quick little sputters and then coughing and shutting down completely. I gaped and pulled it to the side of the road.

I was out in an instant, ready to fix anything wrong with the car I had grown to love. As I opened the lid, I closed my eyes just in case some sort of strange liquid came shooting out at my eyes, I hadn't done much with cars at this point in time. When I found nothing had hit me in the face, I opened my eyes and looked in at the large engine, capable of carrying such weight with just simple mechanisms and pumps.

I let out a breath, inflating my cheeks wide and hissing it out through my nose. Honestly, nothing in this world could frustrate me more than this was frustrating me right now. I stomped my foot into the ground almost unconsciously.

I walked back to the passenger's side door, opened it, and slipped in, slamming the door as hard as i could behind me. "I don't know what's wrong with it, but it's not good, for sure."

Chris sighed, seeing my frustration. "I can look at it," He said, unbuckling his seatbelt. "With what my Dad taught me, I just might be able to figure out what's wrong." I nodded and watched as he got out of the car, walking to the hood and disappearing behind it.

"What are we going to do?" Whimpered Jemma. I turned and glared at her.

"Oh, don't worry. I just called my mom to come and get me, so she's on her way and we'll all be fine. The engine is broken and we have no idea what's wrong with it, but it's perfectly fine. Nothing wrong here." I once again whipped around, though this time I spun away from her and buried my face in my hands.

My once soaring self esteem had no dropped to below bedrock, and

I couldn't help but feel it gnawing inside me, ripping my to shreds from the inside out. Dark and angry it was, and the more I felt it the more I adopted its terms.

Jemma sat in the back, completely silent as she watched the hood, which I didn't understand at all. It's not like she could see through it to watch Chris try to figure out what was wrong with it. I sighed and slouched in my seat, staring at my feet and letting waves of self-pity wash over me.

Chris slipped into the car beside me, sighing and grumbling to himself. I looked at him, a little hopeful that something would be able to be done about it. Chris bit his lip at me and shook his head.

"It's a coolant leak. We can't go on without it. It keeps the entire engine from overheating and puke all the coolant out. Which would be pointless because it had no coolant in the first place." He said.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes with the palms of my hands. Letting the little fizzes or black and bright be all that I focused on, rather than the fact that this was yet another delay that I wasn't standing for.

"Great. That's really great." I muttered under my breath.

Jemma shifted in the backseat, stretching her arms out. "What are we going to do, then?" She yawned.

Chris shrugged his shoulders and glanced over at me, looking worried. "I don't really know, Jemma. I think we're going have to either walk or wait for help."

"How long will it take to walk?" quizzed Jemma.

Chris taped his hin and scratched his nose. "Hmm. We're in Desert Hot Springs?" He asked, looking to me. I nodded my head. "Well, considering where we have to get, it should take... Eleven and a half hours."

I peek out of the windshield and looked at the vast desert that seemed to stretch on forever. A groan slipped from my lips. Irritated, I laid my head back on the seat. "Why do we have such bad luck?" I moaned. Jemma patted my shoulder, twisting my hair between her fingers.

"Don't worry, Dean." She murmured. "We'll find your sister."

I rubbed my face once again, well aware that the stress was really starting to get to me. "At this point, Jemma. It really doesn't feel like it."